TOP PLAYGROUNDS

Bonnie Wach

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 9, 2006

Photo: Eric Luse

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Parkside at 28th & Vicente has a giant spider web in the playground.
*1. Walter Haas Playground, Diamond Heights: The views are fab, and if you can get a shot with a kid going around the bike path, the swings and skyline in the background, that would really cool.
2. Parkside, 26th Ave and Vicente: The giant spider web or the lookout spyglass atop the climbing structure are two of the best things at this revamped park.
3. Holly Park, Bernal Heights: Maybe the picnic area just to the north of the playground. This is another park that was completely overhauled and there was a great community celebration at its reopening.
4. The Rooftop at Yerba Buena Gardens: Great long slides, innovative design, interesting rooftop location.
5. McKinley Square, Potrero Hill (Vermont/20th): Haven't investigated this fully yet, but it's another great redevelopment project.
6. Kidpower Park, Hoff bet. 16th and 17th: a new mini-park in the Mission.Photographer:
Eric Luse / SFChronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT less

playground_0218_el.JPG
Parkside at 28th & Vicente has a giant spider web in the playground.
*1. Walter Haas Playground, Diamond Heights: The views are fab, and if you can get a shot with a kid going around ... more

Photo: Eric Luse

TOP PLAYGROUNDS

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Here are highlights of some of the city's newest and nicest playgrounds. Bring the fogscreen and don't forget the goldfish.

Description: With separate play structures for younger and older kids and showstopping skyline views, the renovated Walter Haas has caused many a Douglass Park and Day Street loyalist to jump ship.

Best features: The varied-level climbing poles, the waterplay sand area and an undulating bicycle path that's great for beginning riders.

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Downside: No bathrooms; slippery drifting sand on the rubber mats.

Bonus points: Showstopping views of downtown and the bay.

2 Kidpower Park

Where: Hoff Street between 16th and 17th streets.

Who's there: Families with young children from the Mission District.

Description: This new (2004) pocket playground was the result of months of lobbying by neighborhood children to turn a rundown parking lot into a kid-friendly space, and its name is a testament to their perseverance. Tucked into a sunny little alleyway in the heart of the Mission and enclosed by wrought-iron gates, it features a large fountain surrounded by wooden tables and benches, and arbors festooned with fanciful sculptural flowers. On one side, a brightly painted structure has cargo nets and baby teeter-totters; on the other side, there's a giant spiderweb climbing dome. Both sides have wall-to-wall soft flooring.

Best feature: "Our Children," a soaring three-story mosaic-mural by Josef Norris that flanks the south side of the park.

Downside: No bathrooms. No sand feature.

Bonus points: You can park across the street in a secure garage -- a big asset in a neighborhood where parking is scarce and often a little sketchy.

Description: After its overhaul in 2003, "JK" became the "it" playground for Pacific Heights and Richmond District moms and their nannies. It's one of the loveliest settings for a playground in all of San Francisco, if not the Bay Area: sunny and sheltered, surrounded by softball and soccer fields, with the verdant Presidio as a backdrop. On the playground itself, a mini-climbing wall, spinning cups, and a spiderweb dome are a few of the highlights.

Best feature: The canal fed by a slow-drip water spigot, where kids create dams and rivers and build sand castles.

Downside: Can get seriously crowded on sunny days.

Bonus points: The clubhouse has arts and crafts classes for kids.

4 Parkside Square

Where: Vicente Street and 26th Avenue.

Who's there: City softball and kid soccer leagues; anyone under the age of 7 seven who lives in the Sunset.

Description: Sitting on a knoll above Stern Grove, surrounded by ball fields and basketball courts, Parkside is one of the city's largest playgrounds, and the only one that is fully ADA (handicapped) accessible for people with disabilities. Two colorful play structures include long ramps, tube slides, and swinging bars. There's a giant spiderweb climbing dome, a sand area with water fountain, and unique see-saws and swings.

Best features: The bottom of one of the play structures is designed like the bow of a pirate ship with a cargo net. At the top, there's a spy glass for spotting yer mateys.

Downside: While the kids seem impervious, to the fog and wind, they can turn mom's lips blue.

Bonus points: In the summer, you can hear the music from the Stern Grove concerts below.

Description: Before 2004, most parents would have looked at you blankly if you asked them about Holly Park. Though it's one of the city's oldest green spaces, it had a reputation for being a bit rough and the playground was, well, lame. A dedicated community effort brought about a $2 million makeover, complete with colorful playhouses, slides, swings, cargo ropes and a lovely little picnic area off to one side. At the top of the hill, there are basketball and tennis courts, and spectacular views.

Best feature: A new-fangled stretchy-rope merry-go-round.

Downside: The wind can whip around here something fierce.

Bonus points: Its grassy hillside location makes this one of the best spots in town for barrel rolling.

Description: It's hard to beat the location of this park -- a bucolic, balmy square set atop snaky Vermont Street (the real "crookedest street in San Francisco"). Surrounded by gorgeous Victorians and pretty pocket gardens, the park feels a million miles away from the concrete jungle. McKinley features two play structures for big and little kids, and an all-sand floor (its 1999 renovation preceded some of the current high-tech playground materials). A full spectrum of slides -- corkscrew, tube, wavy -- offers nice variety, and there's a grassy area outside the fence for kicking a ball around.

Best feature: The old-fashioned cement-wall sandbox is great for keeping toddlers entertained ... and corralled.

Description: Reopened last year with a refurbished clubhouse, spruced-up bathrooms and new picnic tables, West Portal is a longtime parent favorite for its intimate feel and gently sloping grass field where kids chase balls and swing bats (equipment is often provided by the rec center).

Best feature: The wooden stationary train (BYO engineers).

Downside: It's on a steep hill atop the streetcar tunnel, and parking can be challenging.

Bonus points: The expanded clubhouse, which offers a full slate of music, arts and crafts and even cooking classes for kids.

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